Suburban Fairy Tales

Since Suburban Fairy Tales came off hiatus I started to ink the strip differently.  It’s very subtle, so I doubt anyone has really taken notice, but I personally really like the new look and it makes inking more fun!

In the past I would ink my work mainly with a Micron felt tip pen and then I would touch it up with a Pentel brush pen.  I decided to move almost exclusively to the Pentel brush pen.  Sure, it smudges more easily and I have to keep a more steady hand, but I’m really liking the payoff and the added fluidity to the strip.  I still keep the Micron pens around for really small things here and there, but they’ve taken a major backseat to the brush pens.

Everyone has their own way of inking and I thought I would share mine.  If you’re planning to draw a comic (or are already drawing one) give a brush pen a try and see what you think.  You might like the look it gives your work.

I have a response to the comments I received from some readers via email:

Insane Forest is an experiment in tastelessness.

I always wanted to try my hand at something that is purposefully crude to see how well I could pull it off.  There are many cartoons and comics that are able to find a huge audience despite (or because of) crude humor and violence.  Would my attempt at such humor be better or worse than my past work?  Would it be a huge success or would it be a complete failure?  Can I keep it fresh or will I start to rely on violence as a crutch?  You never know unless you try.  Insane Forest is something I needed to draw, experiment with, and ultimately get out of my system.

That said, I believe Insane Forest is funny.  It won’t rely on violence for everything, nor will every strip be filled with potty humor.  As the series continues, scenarios will evolve and characters will grow — it’s inevitable.  I would rather not continue to hemorrhage readers as the series finds its footing, but I understand if such humor doesn’t appeal to everyone.  Stick with it for a few weeks until it reaches its stride.  With any luck a majority of you might start to really enjoy it just in time for it to end and Suburban Fairy Tales to return.

This past year at NY Comic Con I had the pleasure of sharing a booth next to author Rich White of Nightwolf Graphics about the importance of meeting your regularly scheduled updates.  He and I are both avid readers of other web comics.  He brought up the point that there are a lot of web comics that he reads that are brilliant, but many never meet the deadlines they set for themselves.  In light of taking my first break in four years from drawing my own web comic, I thought I would share my thoughts on the subject.

Many people have asked me why I only update Suburban Fairy Tales three times a week.  Others have asked how I’m able to do as many as three days a week.  The reality is that you need to pick a schedule that works for you and stick to that schedule.  I know I can do three comics a week no problem, which is why I picked that schedule.  Could I do seven strips a week?  Probably — but it’s possible I might miss a regularly scheduled day here or there and for me this is unacceptable.  If I promise my readers seven comics a week I need to deliver seven comics a week, rain or shine.  If I promise them three, then I’d better deliver three.  Nothing annoys a reader more than a comic that misses a regularly scheduled update.

Once and a while a comic strip might take some time off, which is what I’m doing for the first week of January.  That’s okay — but I believe you should let your readers know when (or if) you plan to return.  There are so many web comics that I have read that have just stopped updating without informing their readers what the status is on updates or whether or not they ever plan to return.  If you want to stop drawing for a while (or forever) that is absolutely your right as a creator — but you owe it to the readers who stuck with you some sort of explanation.

So to sum it all up, my belief as a web cartoonist is that you should pick a schedule you know you can meet and do it.  If you can meet the schedule that you set for your web comic, you’ll not only feel proud of yourself every time you update, but your readers will appreciate it too.